Liquor prices in Assam to increase by 10-15 percent. The move came after the state government has taken the decision to hike excise duty to compensate loss from VAT reduction on petrol and diesel.
The tax will be higher for costly liquor in Assam. The price of the costly liquor to increase up to 15 percent while that of the low price liquor will go up by 5 percent increase in prices.
In fiscal 2001-02, the State government earned Rs 148-crore excise revenue against Rs 2,033 crore in 2020-21. In this fiscal, the department has set a target of Rs 2,400-crore excise revenue collection.
Official sources say that the State Government did not issue licences for liquor and wine shops after 2001. It, however, issued licences for bars during that period. Now the State Government has decided to issue licences for wine shops at a few locations. The state has 1,234 liquor and wine shops, 318 in Guwahati alone. The number of bars in the state is 996.